


Salt and Iron

by pennysparrow



Category: Batgirl (Comics), Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Magic, Monster Hunters, Stephanie Brown is Batgirl, do not copy to another site
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:15:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26886478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pennysparrow/pseuds/pennysparrow
Summary: Steph never really got any formal magic training, though she never really got much formal vigilante training either. She's just going to do what she does best and make it work.
Relationships: Crystal Brown & Stephanie Brown
Kudos: 17





	Salt and Iron

**Author's Note:**

> Another of my Halloweenish fics. No actual monsters are shown though there are mentions of them taking over Gotham.

Steph pried her bedroom window open before slipping in and closing it firmly behind herself. Then locked it for good measure. Sure, she’d seen some weirdness since first putting on a mask, and just a few months into her time as Batgirl she’d even fought off some Segway riding vampires with Kara. But this was different. For one, they weren’t real vampires but Dracula from an old film brought to life. For another, it looked like literal hell had overtaken Gotham.

She wasn’t scared though; Steph could handle it and had been handling it. Well, not scared for herself. Her mom was home alone and once confirmation came through that this whatever was sweeping the city, she knew she had to take precautions. If she didn’t protect her mom then what was even the point?

Rule number five – or maybe twelve? Not that it really mattered the order after rules one and two and Jason kinda said screw number one – of being a vigilante was that magic was real. And sometimes it made a giant ass mess. So, you had to be prepared for it. Which Steph was. Kind of.

The others had Amazons, demi-goddesses, half-demons, magicians, and the like as friends feeding them tips and tricks on how to survive trips to hell or zombie apocalypses. Steph watched a lot of _Supernatural_ and _Teen Wolf_ and _Vampire Diaries_ when she was younger. A lot. Which really wasn’t the same thing but had a lasting effect. Mainly that right now she would need salt. A lot of salt.

Running into the kitchen, Steph startled her mom. Crystal Brown knew her daughter was Batgirl but out of some weird holdover they never actually used the words “masked vigilante” or “superhero” or “bat” when talking about it. And Steph very much did not go running through the living room in her gear.

“What is going on?” Crystal watched wide-eyed as Batgirl frantically raided the kitchen cabinets.

“It’s like _Ghostbuster_ and _Hocus Pocus_ had an R-rated lovechild,” Steph informed her. Triumphantly, she pulled the big can of salt off the top shelf, careful not to spill any of it. Turning to her mom, Steph tried to tone down her grin lest there was the thought she’d been hit by Joker Venom. “And just like in _Hocus Pocus_ we need to use salt to make a protective circle and you need to stay in it. Well, in the apartment. I’m going to do all the doors and windows.”

Without waiting for a reply, Steph turned and began shaking out a line of salt in an unbroken semi-circle around the apartment’s door. Magic was mostly about intention and power, not the spell itself, and Stephanie Brown had intention in spades. It gave her power and she believed that this was going to keep her mom safe. Her understanding of the mystic arts or whatever was that belief was all that mattered.

It took longer than she intended but the door and all the windows were soon given a thin semi-circle of salt. Careful not to break the one she’d just made around her own bedroom window, Steph climbed back out and onto the fire escape. “Don’t,” she warned as her mom stepped as if to follow her.

“You don’t really think this will work,” Crystal sounded exasperated but she looked worried. Steph knew the worry was for her rather than her mom’s own well-being.

“I do,” Steph asserted. And she did. Salt and iron. Salt for protection and honestly the right kind of force and application of anything iron from a skillet to a nail could hurt anyone.

Which reminded her.

Taking out two of the razor sharp batarangs from her belt, Steph passed them through the window carefully. They were steel but there was iron in them and she could only hope it’d count. Besides, force and application. “And then close and lock this window but don’t break the salt,” Steph instructed one last time. Her mom nodded and they shared a wavering smile.

Firing a grapple, Batgirl went to work. She was going to beat these demons back where they belonged because she knew no matter what her mom was safe and that’s all that mattered.

**Author's Note:**

> I honestly don't know where this came from but uh, I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
